Influences, episode one: The Faces and The Jeff Beck Group.

2010-02-27T15:21:31-05:00

By Rod Van Stoli.

I thought it could be fun to write a thing or two about musicians who inspire us. So without further adieu, let's get the most obvious ones out of the way.

Every generation has a band that did everything better than everyone else in their genre, but for different reasons never achieved the level of popularity and worship they deserved. In 1968, before Jimmy Page had any real idea what he wanted to do for a post-Yardbirds band, Jeff Beck came out, guns a-blazing, with the kick-in-the-nuts classic album Truth. Featuring Ronnie Wood on bass and a then unknown Rod Stewart, they wrote the book on hard rock and heavy blues. Rock and roll lore tells us that when Page was looking for a singer, he picked Robert Plant because his screamed high pitched blues style was the closest thing he could get to Stewart. You don't need to dig too deep to find the resemblance between Led Zeppelin's debut and Truth. In my opinion, Truth is the blueprint, and LZ's first is a nicely done, but slightly faded copy. Zep went on to grow into an amazing band deserving of all the accolades, but the influence that Beck, Ronnie, Stewart and crew had on its beginnings cannot be underestimated.

It seemed only fitting that when The Small Faces broke apart, Steve Marriott's role should be filled by Stewart and Wood. After all, Steve's voice had, along with Sam Cooke's, deeply influenced the singing style of Stewart and you can certainly hear his guitar playing echoed in a lot of what Ron Wood did. They complemented Ronnie Lane's folksy songwriting nicely, and their blend with Ian McLagan on keys and Kenney Jones on drums created something magical. But gone were the psych tendencies of the Small Faces' earlier records. The Faces were a drunk, no-holds-barred, barely held together mess that worked so damn well it seemed they never had to try. When they were falling apart they were almost more exciting than when they were super tight. The energy was in the push and pull.

We, through no design of our own, have always been a band on the verge of disaster. Keeping things rolling in the face of chaos is not good for my health, but I think our music and live shows are better for it. I don't think we have ever stepped on stage fully prepared, but we were always ready; ready for whatever crap might hit us at any given time. Gladly, our train wrecks turn out to be pretty musical and pretty fun (at least for us). Thank you, Faces, for raising the bar for the music, and lowering it for dysfunction.

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Influences, episode one: The Faces and The Jeff Beck Group.